Hi ladies and happy Friday to you all! You know it’s funny, sometimes, when I sit down to write my Friday Five blog post, I have a list of things in advance that I plan to share and some weeks I decide as I write the post. This week is one of those random weeks where I don’t have the entire post planned prior to drafting it, and I kind of love that. So, here it goes…
O N E
Over the weekend, we had the pleasure of shooting some “day in the life” photos with Nikki, a Houston-based documentary family photographer from Olive Shoot Photography. We’ve shot family photos before, but this was a really unique experience because it’s all about capturing your real day-to-day life and moments as a family. We baked some cookies, read books, played in our playroom and jumped on the bed. I will share our entire session soon, but below are a couple of sneak peeks!
Nikki is so sweet and it felt really natural to have her in our home with our family. I also love that these photos aren’t posed and totally true-to-life. We will cherish these for a long time and can’t wait to shoot with her again! You can check out her Facebook page here.
These photos are also motivating me to finish our master bedroom, haha 🙂
T W O
This week I shared that we booked our Disney World trip and I’ve started shopping to pick up some essentials for it. I got these walking shoes (the shade of pink is amazing) and this adorable pool float. I’m also looking for some cute denim shorts and ordered these ones and am about to order these, these and these as well. I got this on-sale top too! My friend over at Tulip + Vine is creating some custom tees for us as well.
T H R E E
I’ve been making an effort each morning to share my daily work/office outfits on Instagram stories and I thank you all for the wonderful responses it has generated! I love sharing my new purchases on the blog, but I also enjoy showing you how I wear those things in my day-to-day life, so Instagam stories has been a great place to do that.
I’m getting a lot of questions about my skinny work dress pants, so I’m re-sharing my Best Work Pants blog post here (note that these photos were taken in a year ago, in August 2016). I’m pretty much obsessed with these two styles and wear them more than anything else in my closet. Most of my co-workers have them too – we’re obsessed! And as an aside, you can wash the Banana Republic ones. I dry cleaned them for years, but found washing them on gentle in cool or cold water and then hanging them to dry worked perfectly. They continue to wear well and maintain their shape. The Old Navy pair do fade significantly over time, but I don’t mind shelling out $29.95 each year to purchase a new pair when they’re on sale.
F O U R
I’ve been exercising regularly for 6 months now (yay!) and I’m really proud I stuck with it. It’s still a challenge to wake up so early and some mornings I have to force myself to go, but I always feel better afterwards.
What I’m working on right now is getting my nutrition/supplementation right. I eat a lot during the day- breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks, but we eat dinner at around 6 every night and then I don’t eat breakfast until I get to work.
I’ve been finding myself really struggling through my workouts lately in terms of endurance and feeling nauseous/light-headed, and my trainer told me I need to be drinking a pre-workout supplement and post-workout protein. Basically, I need to start fueling my body before my workouts to get the best results. If you have any brands you like for pre-workout or post, I would love your recommendations!
F I V E
I read this article in the Washington Post this week and it really made me reflect on parenting in our day and age and how it’s different from when I was growing up. I talked with a co-worker about it and we both agreed that a factor influencing this may be that nowadays, there are more households where both parents work outside of the home. So in turn, the time we do spend with our children is focused on ensuring they have fun experiences and is centered around their happiness. We are absolutely “guilty” of that.
Another factor, of course, is technology and our constant access to information via smartphones. When we were growing up, the internet didn’t exist at all, let alone smartphones. Today’s parents are inundated on a daily basis with parenting advice, articles, crowdsourcing Facebook posts, online moms groups, etc. It’s nearly unavoidable if you spend time online or on social media. Our parents didn’t live in a time where reading articles on parenting and children on a daily basis was a “thing.” They just kind of parented how they wanted and didn’t care what anyone else thought.
I recall that growing up, my happiness or boredom levels were rarely a priority for my parents. If I was bored, I was expected to find something to do. If my parents were busy, I would play by myself. I think this fosters creativity and development, but somehow our generation has gone in the total opposite direction. Personally, I recognize the limited time I have with our children because we work, and I suppose there comes some guilt with that in terms of always wanting to ensure that our family time is something that’s for them. But is that the wrong approach? I would love to hear your thoughts on this topic — please leave me a comment if this article interests you!
S H O P T H E P O S T
Shop the Post
I love the Pure Protein shakes; they are individually packaged have 160 calories, 30 grams of protein, and only 1g of sugar. I workout after work and have one mixed with a little coffee and ice on my way to the gym. They are really good and not grainy at all which you can sometimes get with protein shakes/drinks. I pick mine up at either Costco or target.
Thank you! What flavor is it?
They have a bunch but my favorite is chocolate, mixed with a little coffee it tastes like a mocha! The vanilla is also very good.
Thank you!
It’s actually called Premier Protein
thank you!
I workout at 5:30am every morning and I eat 1/2 banana before the workout and a protein shake immediately after the workout – it’s worked great for me.
Thank you! Maybe I need to start buying bananas- do you prefer this to a pre-workout drink supplement? What kind of shake do you like (brand)?
I use Vega chocolate mixed with coffee. My trainers recommend 1/2 banana or orange as the best thing to eat pre-workout.
vega! with a banana blended up is great. All plant based protein!
Interesting topic re: parenting. I’ve been thinking so much about this lately, related to how much I look at my phone when I’m with my kids, how much I should be entertaining them versus them entertaining themselves, how many toys they have, and the list goes on. It is SO EASY to feel mom guilt, isn’t it? I think the answer is, honestly, that there is no truly wrong approach, as long as our kids are loved and cared for. We’re dealing with completely different challenges, opportunities, schedules, and technologies than our parents dealt with as we were growing up. I love the idea of hopefully being thoughtful about how we parent in this age, while also giving ourselves grace.
Thanks for sharing! Have a fantastic weekend!
Jen- I totally agree with you – if our children are loved and cared for, we’ve done a great job. The way society is today makes us reflect a lot more than our parents did about our parenting, for better or for worse. I sometimes wonder if this constant over-analysis is making many mothers as anxious as they are (many of my mom friends also struggle with anxiety, a large majority, actually). It’s a very interesting topic, for sure.
Also love the Vega Protein + Greens shake mix. I love the chocolate flavor the most!
Yes! I remember “finding something to do” while my parents made dinner or did chores. Never once was I dangling at their feet while making dinner or begging them to take me some place to play. I think it’s definitely backwards and I find myself forcing myself upstairs and leaving my kids to find their own fun. No tablets or anything to distract them, just good old toys and make believe fun.
Some days it works, some days it doesn’t. But I try like heck to get them to be bored enough to play with each other in the Playroom and not be entertained by an electronic device. Totally agree that our generation is doing this ass-backwards ? Great post! Love your blog ?
Hi Kylie!
It’s hard for me to know if we are doing it backwards or not. That’s what I really struggle with. We do let our kids watch shows, but TBH, they rarely use tablets. I didn’t want them to ask for them in the car/out at lunch or dinner, etc, so we never started that habit. I will say sometimes when we are really exhausted, we do let them watch TV so that we can all just relax (although, Lincoln isn’t quite into sitting still yet and is always running around doing something).
I just think we live in such a different time that we must adapt — since we have so many new things our parents didn’t, we have to learn to live within a world where those technologies are part of our everyday lives. But is it good or bad? That’s hard to know.
I think the part that makes parenting today more difficult is our constant judgment of ourselves and one another, concious or unconcious. We compare, we read articles and over-analyze our and our children’s behavior (something I think our parents rarely, if ever, did).
I think the one thing that is scientifically proven is that children learn through play and social interactions, so if we can provide an environment in which they can do that, then that’s always a positive thing.
I enjoyed hearing your thoughts- thank you!
Oh absolutely! Our TV is always on, more for background noise but mostly for when they stop fighting long enough to look at it. I need to use all the tools I can being a SAHM of two busy littles ?
I think that especially when you’re a SAHM, screen time is a much-needed life saver!
Full disclosure – it is a multilevel marketing company, but I’ve had good results with the Isagenix amped line for pre and post workout support (you can buy retail to see if you like it and avoid the schematic, lol). I also like the Isapro, which is 100 calories and delivers 27 g of protein. I used to get lightheaded all the time – but this has helped A LOT. While a lot of the products focus on weight loss, maintaining endurance and healthy muscles is obviously important too!
Thanks for the recommendation! 🙂 how do you buy it retail?
I ended up signing up (after trying a bunch) so you can read about the performance line here: https://rachelbryant1.isagenix.com/en-us/products/performance
A lot of it seems gimmicky (to me) but I haven’t found anything I like as much (I’ll be following this thread!). Sugars are low and protein is high – which (for me) appears to be the best solution. 🙂